Under 21 A Hurling Final

The game began in blistering pace with
three points on the board after only two minutes. Podge Collins and Brian Carey
hit the target in the first minute before Conor McGrath opened his account two
minutes later. Brian Carey was detailed to mark Conor Ryan as Paidi Fitzpatrick
was parachuted to full back to keep McGrath at bay were he to be positioned
there.

The line out of Sixmilebridge definitely
paid respect to Cratloe’s powerful five players and only time would tell would
it pay dividends for the O Garney men appearing in their third final in a row. Declan Morey had the sides level after 11 minutes as one would suggest that
pace was beginning to tell for Sixmilebridge in the heat of Cusack park. Ronan
Mullane and David Collins enterd the referee’s notepad. The breakthrough score
of the first half fell to Declan Morey who raced through and his low effort
gave David Collins no chance at the end of the first quarter.

Sam O Sullivan
with a smart effort stretched the Sixmilebridge lead to three before the game
lulled considerably in a poor standard of fare for the premier under 21 final.
The next spurt of action came courtesy of Conor McGrath with two well taken
scores in the 28th and 29th minutes before Pa Sheehan
rounded off the first half scoring as Sixmilebridge retired (1-4) to (0-5)
clear and happy that they had quelled the scoring power of Cratloe but that was
soon to change and all the better for the game.

The first attack of Cratloe in the second
dhalf yielded gold as Conor McGrath with
a deft pass released Cathal McInerney who coolly slotted the ball past Fleming.
Joe O Connor with a brilliant score put
Cratloe two clear, yet the best from Sixmilebridge was about to be
unleashed. Seadna Morey hit back within
seconds before Ronan Mullane who was replaced soon after left the Bridge only a
point in arrears. The match winning score came about when Jamie Shanahan
dispossessed a Cratloe defender and slipped the ball past David Collins.

This was Shanahan’s first score of the game
after 40 minutes and he added a further (2-5) to secure the title in the
easiest of fashions for Paddy Meehan’s men. Shanahan, Seadna Morey and Shanahan
hit points by the 43rd minute as now the Bridge were (2-9) to (1-7)
clear. Stephen Fleming was on guard in the Bridge goal and he denied Cathal
McInerney a clear goal chance as Liam Markham pointed the resulting 65. Conor
McGrath and Conor Ryan hit two scores in the 47th and 49th
minute as now only two points was the difference. The scoreboard keeper in
Cusack park was under pressure to keep the scores tallied up and it was to get
busier for him very quickly. Seadna Morey kickstarted a further (2-5) in the
final ten minutes before a high speculative effort by Shane Golden was dropped
over the line by David Collins. The remaining (1-4) was scored by Jamie
Shanahan to round off a 13 point win that may have done an injustice to Cratloe
but such is sport.

Best
for the winners were Paidi Fitzpatrick who was immense at full back denying
McGrath a route to goal. Barry O Connor, John Fennessy and especially Trevor
Purcell controlled the half back line. Shane Golden, Seadna Morey led the way
up front and has proved to all doubters including this one that he is a forward
to watch in the future for Clare not just for the Bridge. Jamie Shanahan opened
his shoulders and all this without Kevin Lynch. Cratloe had honest displays
from Joe Conroy, Liam Markham, Conor
Ryan, Cathal McInerney and Conor McGrath.